


Karkat Vantas' Wriggling Day

by Unda



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Birthday, M/M, Meteor fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-01
Updated: 2018-06-01
Packaged: 2019-05-16 20:41:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,476
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14818500
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Unda/pseuds/Unda
Summary: Your name is Karkat Vantas and today is your seventh wriggling day.





	Karkat Vantas' Wriggling Day

**Author's Note:**

  * For [apocalypticTaco](https://archiveofourown.org/users/apocalypticTaco/gifts).



Your name is Karkat Vantas and today is your seventh wriggling day. It has been primarily uneventful, but perhaps your standards for that have been slightly skewed as on your sixth your world was destroyed and most of your species killed. So, quieter is good, all things considered. You haven’t seen Gamzee all day which you consider a gift any day but it’s still early. You’ve settled down with a book you’ve not read in a while and you’re prepared for a calm day. 

A knock rings out on your door and you groan theatrically into your book before opening the door. Terezi stands on the other side grinning wildly. 

“I was going to give you this for your wriggling day, me and Kanaya worked on it.” Terezi says and tosses something at you. You flail to catch it and find a small, grey, custom scalemate with little nubby horns and your sign.

“I wasn’t expecting- this is really nice.” You say, as you stare at it in surprise. 

“This is better, follow me.” Terezi declares and grabs you, pulling you out of your room. She drags you down a hallway and then peels a grate off of the wall. 

“Oh no, not happening.” You tell her but she shoves you inside anyway and she’s following you right after giving you no choice but to move on through the vent or else be bitten. You know she will bite you, this is Terezi. Either way your friend guides you through a few long tunnels, pointing you left and right until your ears pick up Dave’s voice. You pause and then carefully move towards it when Terezi pokes you. 

“Did you think he didn’t have them?” Rose asks patiently.

“No! Of course I knew he had birthdays. Wriggling days or whatever. But he never told us when they were and it’s not like they happen every year. Troll sweeps are like… like… every two point one seven years or some shit like that!” Dave argues. 

“You really can’t couch it in that much uncertainty when you just gave me the conversion to two decimal places.” Rose points out. 

Terezi pokes you and you both shimmy a little closer to the vent. Rose’s gaze flicks up and locks with your own and, slyly, she smiles and returns her attention to Dave. 

“The point is the last one was pretty shitty by all accounts so… so maybe he doesn’t want to celebrate it anymore. Maybe I’d be making it worse by bringing it up.” Dave mutters. 

“If it helps I have a gift for him and I know Terezi and Kanaya worked together on one. I don’t know about Vriska or Stephen King’s personal nightmare made alien flesh.” Rose says patiently. 

“Firstly, best Gamzee description to date. Please bump.” Dave says, holding a fist out which Rose obligingly connects hers to. 

“Second, how could you get a gift ready for Karkat and NOT TELL ME HIS BIRTHDAY WAS COMING UP?! What kind of treacherous sister are you?” Dave demands. 

“What kind of god of time are you?” Rose counters and Dave flips her off. 

“I can’t just… I can’t just give him something halfassed. He’ll think I’m mocking him or- or that I don’t care. Maybe I could just- no, no, that’s stupid. Shit. Or I could write him a… no, I don’t think he actually really likes my sick raps and he’ll think I’m making fun.” Dave mutters to himself as he paces. 

Inside your chest your bloodpusher feels like it’s being squeezed tight in the best kind of way. You didn’t- ok, it’s not that you didn’t think that Dave cared but you’ve always been at least a little uncertain of how much he cared. Whether he was just spending time with you because everyone else was doing their own thing, at least that’s what you consider when you feel at your worst. But here he is, genuinely worried about upsetting you. 

“Your true feelings towards Karkat are pretty inscrutable.” Rose purrs. 

“Kiss my ass, Rose.” Dave shoots back. 

Feelings for you? No, goddamnit Dave go back to that topic. Ramble on something on command for a change! You want to know about his feelings! Especially if they’re feelings for you because you have more feelings for him than you can possibly expect to keep control of. 

You’re jolted out of your thoughts by a not-as-distant-as-you-would-like horn honk and below you Dave jumps too. 

“God, I hate not knowing where Bozo the nightmare clown is all the time. I know it’d doom the timeline but I swear if Kanaya chainsawed him in half I’d be cool with that. I hate thinking he’s watching.” Dave shudders. 

Right. Dave hates being watched, because of how his life used to be on Earth. You back up, you shouldn’t be here. Overhearing your crush talk about you might play out well in movies but in real life people get caught doing that and he wouldn’t trust you anymore. Besides it feels a little like cheating, skipping ahead to the answers before you’ve earned them. 

You shimmy back down the vent and towards your hallway. 

“You’re missing the good part.” Terezi insists. 

“It’s fine, this was… thanks, though.” You tell her, clumsily clambering out of the vent by your room. 

“No investigative spirit.” Terezi sighs and hops out of the vent with a bounce. 

“Thanks for the scalemate and everything.” You tell her sincerely. 

“Well, happy wriggling day.” She replies and ruffles your hair before sauntering off. 

You return to your room and an hour or so later Rose shows up with a new knitted sweater for you. It’s more or less the same as the one you have on now but the wool is awfully soft and it’s actually a really nice gift. The knowing smile she has on her face is less nice but that’s Rose. 

Dave doesn’t show up until hours after that, when you open your door to him you smell burning. 

“What’s burning?” you ask suspiciously. 

“Nothing, certainly nothing in the kitchen. I’m just so hot I’m smoking, of course.” Dave answers hastily, telling you that he absolutely had been in the kitchen burning things. Was he trying to make you something? That’s really sweet. He’s so endearingly pitiable sometimes. 

“So, I thought- I mean I know it’s your alien chestburster birthday of course, commemorating the day you just like gut punched through some space miner’s thorax or whatever. So I tried to think of what you might want but like you can alchemise shit yourself and you’re a philistine about my art so I figured I could like. Uh. We could watch something, anything you want at all, and I promise to totally shut up completely. No sass or running commentary at all. I will be the best moviegoer it is me.” Dave blurts out in one panicked go. 

“The commentary can be entertaining, sometimes.” You tell him and he obviously perks up. 

You pull him into your room and Dave willingly sits down on the edge of your sleeping pile. Usually you watch movies on the sofa in the main room but sometimes you retreat to your room where it’s just you two. You set something playing without much caring what it is, though the opening music tells you enough, it’s Titanic. You settle in next to Dave and after a bit look over at him. He’s quiet and you don’t know if it’s because he’s bored or because he promised to be. 

You should say something.

“This is nice.” You tell him. 

“Yeah?” Dave asks, looking at you.

“Nicer than the last wriggling day.” You agree. 

“Your species basically went extinct on the last one, I’m surprised you’re wanting to celebrate it at all, John probably is gonna feel like they’re cursed too. I know I couldn’t-” Dave starts to ramble.

“Yeah, but I’m not on my own this time.” You cut over him and Dave falls silent. 

“I can’t get over having birthdays with people around either. I mean, parties, presents, cake? What the shit?” Dave agrees quietly. 

“It’s better.” You nod and then, feeling brave, you lean against his side. Dave freezes for a split second and then cautiously slides his arm around you. 

The trolls on screen are falling flush for each other and you two might not be right there yet but you’re starting to think that you might actually get there. 

“I’m glad that you’re here. Having another wriggling day I mean. As opposed to most of your species, or mine, or the poor assholes that didn’t make it this far holy shit please stop me talking.” Dave says, his comforting words running into insensitive in a way that apparently horrifies even him.

“Thanks.” You interrupt and feel him relax against your side. You’re pretty glad about it too.


End file.
